RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The crisis did not deter Brazilian Startups: they reinvented their businesses, attracting investors and clients. The number of contracts between these companies and large corporations set a record in 2020, according to 100 Open Startups, which measures the degree of interaction between these two company profiles in Brazil.
The success of Startups is not accomplished alone. Hundreds of ecosystem players, such as hubs, accelerators, government bodies, and associations, help these companies grow and develop their businesses. About 40 percent of the 100 startups that have signed the most contracts with large companies claim to have had the contribution of some of these agents in their trajectory.
This year, InovAtiva Brasil, a federal government initiative founded in 2013 to accelerate Brazilian startups, was elected the most important ecosystem for startups’ deals with large companies for the second consecutive year. The data is part of the 2020 Top Ecosystem ranking, released by 100 Open Startups on Wednesday, November 11th.
The federal program has already trained 2,200 startups with its over 800 mentors. In 2020, InovAtiva shifted from being an acceleration program to becoming a hub. In practice, this means that startups can have connections with large companies, community leaders, and access to free online content in addition to mentoring.
“With the repositioning, we have the aggressive goal of impacting 15,000 new startups within the next four years,” says Igor Manhães Nazareth, undersecretary for innovation at the Ministry of Economy.
In second place in the ranking is the AMCHAM Arena acceleration program, organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Brazil. Established in 2017, in Porto Alegre, the program was conceived to connect Brazilian startups to a network of 5,000 member companies of the chamber of commerce, such as Microsoft and IBM.
The winners of the acceleration program become members of the AMCHAM and can advertise their work on the chamber’s corporate channel. Others can participate in the AMCHAM Lab and join projects developed by large companies.
“We are very happy with the acknowledgment because we always proposed to be an instrument for startups to be able to have more efficient connections,” says Marcelo Rodrigues, innovation superintendent at AMCHAM Brazil.
Bruno Rondani, president and founder of 100 Open Startups, explains that the ranking is based on the number of times that ecosystems are mentioned by well-positioned startups in the open innovation ranking. “It’s almost like a course that contributes to a student’s admission to a good university,” says the president.
The list of the 20 best ecosystems:
- InovAtiva Brazil
- AMCHAM
- FAPESP
- Apex Brazil
- Cubo
- FINEP
- ABDI
- SEBRAE
- AHK Brazil
- FIEMG Lab
- StartOut Brasil
- Liga Ventures
- Endeavor
- BNDES
- Artemisia
- SENAI
- Darwin Startups
- ACE
- ACATE
- SUPERA Parque
Source: Exame